The present invention relates to a shift control for an automatic transmission for a vehicle and particularly one for use with a floor console mounted transmission shifter mechanism.
Conventional shift controls for use in connection with floor-model automatic transmission shifters use knobs which include a wire pigtail which is routed through a sleeve associated with the shifting stem of the transmission and includes a connector at one end which subsequently is attached to a wire harness connector to complete the electrical connection of a switch associated with the shifter knob to the transmission control. Typically, this switch is employed to control an over-drive solenoid for the transmission, although it can be utilized with other transmission controls, such as shifting to all-wheel drive or the like. During manufacturing of the vehicle, it is necessary to manually guide the wires from the shift knob downwardly through a coupling sleeve which is attached to the top of the shift stem and subsequently connect the wire to a mating connector on a transmission wire harness. The routing of the relatively small wires through the mounting sleeve and the subsequent connection of the pigtail to the harness can be somewhat difficult and time consuming during the intense activity on an assembly line operation. Also, the pigtail can easily be crimped or the wires broken away from the control switch during assembly. Further, the wire pigtail, when routed through the sleeve, can be a source of annoying rattling noise during vehicle operation. Thus, there exists a need for the elimination of this prior construction to speed up and simplify the manufacturing operation, lower the cost of the vehicle, as well as improve the reliability of the resultant assembly.